Chapter 12: Blockade and Beachhead: The Salt-Water War, 1861-1862
Unemployment occurred in the British textile industry from 1862-1863. Southerners hoped this would help them, because the war led to a growth in the iron, shipbuilding, and other industries, and there was a decline in textiles. British merchants became convinced of a neutrality since they were trading in war weapons with the North as well. Since there were many Confederate privateers, or commerce raiders, many of the British ships which took back Northern goods were destroyed. This was a tactic to discourage the British from intervening in the war.
Southerners decided to embargo cotton exports, thinking King Cotton would convince the British to help them. Since Britain imported three-fourths of its cotton from the American South, it was a weapon of southern foreign policy. At first, King Cotton diplomacy seemed to favor the Southerners. The British and French contemplated joining together to lift the blockade, but in the end, they didn't. Also, the large surplus of cotton in the South was too much for British mills which could not turn all of it into cotton. Soon, all the cloth was poling up in warehouse. Then, the cotton growing in Egypt and India supplied most of Europe's cotton imports for the next three years. Crop failures in western Europe from 1860-1862 increased British dependence on American grain and flour, provided by the Union North.
By 1862, Britain allowed the northern blockade to increase. Yet, when a Union warship captured a British vessel thinking it was a ship meant for the Confederates, the British retaliated against the Northern Yankees. The British government didn't do anything about it then, but they would use it as a justification to seize American ships carrying contraband fifty years later.
The Confederates also wanted to secure diplomatic recognition of the South's nationhood. But the North's blockade led to Britain declaring neutrality and northerners rioted, thinking that neutrality meant the British deemed the Confederacy as a belligerent power.
Lincoln ignored the British, because he believed taking on two wars would destroy the Union. In 1861, British India was giving the Union saltpeter, an important ingredient of gunpowder. But the war brought the supply of saltpeter down, so Seward sent someone to buy all available supplies of saltpeter in England and in India. But the British government put an embargo on all shipments to the US until everything was settled. Still, the Union military successes in the West helped mollify many Northerners.
Key Terms:
Questions:
Unemployment occurred in the British textile industry from 1862-1863. Southerners hoped this would help them, because the war led to a growth in the iron, shipbuilding, and other industries, and there was a decline in textiles. British merchants became convinced of a neutrality since they were trading in war weapons with the North as well. Since there were many Confederate privateers, or commerce raiders, many of the British ships which took back Northern goods were destroyed. This was a tactic to discourage the British from intervening in the war.
Southerners decided to embargo cotton exports, thinking King Cotton would convince the British to help them. Since Britain imported three-fourths of its cotton from the American South, it was a weapon of southern foreign policy. At first, King Cotton diplomacy seemed to favor the Southerners. The British and French contemplated joining together to lift the blockade, but in the end, they didn't. Also, the large surplus of cotton in the South was too much for British mills which could not turn all of it into cotton. Soon, all the cloth was poling up in warehouse. Then, the cotton growing in Egypt and India supplied most of Europe's cotton imports for the next three years. Crop failures in western Europe from 1860-1862 increased British dependence on American grain and flour, provided by the Union North.By 1862, Britain allowed the northern blockade to increase. Yet, when a Union warship captured a British vessel thinking it was a ship meant for the Confederates, the British retaliated against the Northern Yankees. The British government didn't do anything about it then, but they would use it as a justification to seize American ships carrying contraband fifty years later.
The Confederates also wanted to secure diplomatic recognition of the South's nationhood. But the North's blockade led to Britain declaring neutrality and northerners rioted, thinking that neutrality meant the British deemed the Confederacy as a belligerent power.Lincoln ignored the British, because he believed taking on two wars would destroy the Union. In 1861, British India was giving the Union saltpeter, an important ingredient of gunpowder. But the war brought the supply of saltpeter down, so Seward sent someone to buy all available supplies of saltpeter in England and in India. But the British government put an embargo on all shipments to the US until everything was settled. Still, the Union military successes in the West helped mollify many Northerners.
Key Terms:
- King Cotton: Britain was the Confederacy's reliance on cotton, but Britain did not help, due to cotton from their Egypt and India, plus they needed flour and wheat from the Union and North more than they needed cotton.
- King Cotton diplomacy: the South's political strategy during the Civil War; it depended upon British and French dependency on Southern cotton to the extent that those two countries would help the South break the Union blockade to get cotton, but Britain eventually didn't.
- King Wheat: North had a surplus in wheat due to the invention of mechanical reapers and Britain had a bad harvest which led to trade between the Union and Britain, and they ignored the Southern Confederacy.
- Trent Affair: (1861) the Confederacy sent Slidell and James Mason to France to ask for recognition; a Union ship captured them and took them to Boston as prisoners. The British became angry at them and Lincoln finally ordered for their release.
Questions:
- How long was the embargo on saltpeter and did this affect the Union in military successes in the time they didn't get saltpeter?
- Did the British actually recognize the Confederacy as an actual power, or did they just declare neutrality because they didn't want to get entangled with the Civil War?
- McPherson, James M. "12: Blockade and Beachhead: The Salt-Water War, 1861-1862." In Battle Cry of Freedom, 369-391. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.
- Accessed March 11, 2015. http://admin.bhbl.neric.org/~mmosall/ushistory/topics/KingCotton.jpg.
- Accessed March 11, 2015. http://thecottongin-eration.weebly.com/uploads/1/7/6/0/17608915/3800250.jpg?384
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